I wanted to come up with a fun and exciting way to integrate sports into my third grade math classroom so I decided to check out the scores of some awesome teams! I had attended a math PL where my Math specialist had used a score print out to solve a problem dealing with touchdowns in college. I headed over to ESPN to print out some play by play game recaps. I first checked out the Ravens vs. Steelers win in the 2015 season. I have a soft spot for the Ravens, they are my favorite! The ending score was 23 – 20 (overtime). I then presented my students with the print out of the play by play and total points after each quarter.

*Screenshots came from ESPN.go.com

Then I gave presented them with this problem:

If Poe had to do push ups each time the Ravens scored and he had to do the amount of points they had at that time, how many push up would he have to do the entire game?

The students would have to look at the times the Ravens scored and add up the total points on the board, not just the points scored that run. To find the answer you would have to add 7, 14, 17, 20, and 23. The total number of push up would be 81 throughout the game. Then I would ask them to find out how many he had to do in each quarter. You can use the print out in a lot of different ways, and change the story about Poe or any mascot you want. The students in my room loved to do this activity and they are always looking for ways to integrate sports into school.

Check back for some more sports in math posts coming soon!